312 
EXAGERATION OF EARLY WRITERS. 
six inches in length. I only saw one case where it 
reached more than half-way to the waist; and here the 
owner was evidently proud of its great length, as he had 
it twisted into innumerable small ringlets, well greased, 
and kept in something like order. Ilis hah\ however, 
was as bush}’’ as that of Juiy other. As this individual 
was evidently the most ‘^lairy Kurile” of the pai'ty, we 
selected him as the one most likely to substantiate the 
assertion of Broughton in regard to “their bodies being 
almost universally covered with long black hair.” lie 
readily l^ared his arms and shoulders for inspection, and 
(if I except a tuft of hair on each shoulder-blade of the 
size of one’s hand) we found his body to be no more hairy 
than that of several of our owui men. The existence of 
those two tufts of hair caused us to examine several others, 
which examinations established his as an isolated case. 
Their beard, which grows well up under the rather 
retreating eye, their bushy brows, and generally wild ap- 
pearance and expression of countenance, give them a 
most savage look, singularly at variance with their mild, 
almost cringing, manners. When drinking, they have a 
habit of lifting the hanging mustache over the nose; 
and it was this practice, I suppose, which caused an early 
writer to say, “ their beards are so long as to require lift- 
ing up.” Though undoubtedly below the middle height 
as a general rule, I still saw several wlio would be called 
quite large men in any country; and, though the average 
height be not more than “live feet two or four inches,” 
they make up the difference in an abundance of muscle. 
They are a well-formed race, with the usual powers of 
endurance accorded to savages indicated in their expau- 
